Pondering human behaviour through examples found in technology, product development, football and politics…while the sun shines

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Destill

Sprouting Grain

In Canada they are about to have an election. This post opened my eyes on one view of the ‘reign’ of Stephen Harper. There’s a lot to be said about his incumbent government and some Canadians reaction to it. I know politics is always polarising, but I’m finding in two party systems – which Canada quite isn’t, yet – the amount of bile and distrust seems to be growing ad-nauseum. Concerning.

Hot Water

Gareth Parker is a political reporter for the West Australian. On his personal blog, he writes a short post making an analogy between the Private Health Insurance/Medicare setup in Australia and the nascent AFL TV rights deal.

I’ve not digested the details, and it seems like a logical analogy. But I’m concerned that making comparisions between healthcare and Entertainment distracts from the very real divisions libertarians and free-marketeers have created in Healthcare and Education in this country in recent years. This sort of “user pays” distinction for simple content belongs with ‘wants’. Less so with ‘needs’.

Distilling the Wash

There’s been a huge discussion about Apple and Googles’ Location tracking being “discovered” in their phones in recent days. The Wall Street Journal gives us a great insight into the benefits which the world can get from this information. So while free thinkers are running with the “told you so” AHA! conversation this week, the rest of us realise privacy is an illusion and most people embrace beneficial technologies understanding there are compromises.

RIM released their Playbook this week to very mixed reviews. John Gruber in his response to a post by Harry McCracken castigates the drive toward “Beta Hardware” and echo’s my thoughts on releasing incomplete products when he writes:

The mass market doesn’t buy…products based on what they might become months from now if these companies somehow dramatically improve the software. They buy products for what they are today, out of the box.

Finally, I’ve never watched 3D TV and I think I saw 2 movies back in the 80’s which were in 3D. I’ve been suspicious of the recent return of 3D, considering how it failed before. TechRepublic published another damning indictment of its “innovation” today. I’ll allow you to make your own judgements.

Tasting

Reputation of a business and perceived opportunity with them are often everything in a career. Rafa Honigstein in the Observer tells us about «Ich würde nie zum FC Bayern München gehen» at Schalke 04 and how larger clubs like Bayern Munchen in the Bundesliga will always be able to buy the best players from even their closest challengers at any price. No matter what song their fans sing.